International Consortium Led by Chinese Scientists Announce the First Complete Sequencing of Pear Genome

Publish Date:2012-06-06

- The early access of pear
genomic data is now available online.

June 6, 2012,
Shenzhen, China – An international pear genome consortium, comprised of seven
universities and institutes, has completed the first pear genomic sequence in
the world. The early access of pear genomic data is now available online (http://peargenome.njau.edu.cn).
The international team includes researchers from Nanjing Agricultural
University, BGI, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Georgia, University of Hawaii, and
Tohoku University.

Pear (Pyrus spp.) is
one of the major and oldest cultivated fruit trees in the temperate regions,
which is likely to have originated during the Tertiary period (65–55 million
years ago) in southwestern China. It is genetically diverse with more than
5,000 cultivars and accessions present all over the world that could be divided
into two major groups, the European or "Occidental" pears and the
Asiatic or "Oriental" pears.

Since pear genome
sequencing project was initiated in April of 2010, the consortium has devoted
great efforts on the de novo sequencing, assembly and annotation. The joint
effort has yielded a high-quality diploid draft genome sequence for the
commercially important Asiatic pear cultivar "Suli", P.
bretschneideri Rehd. cv. Dangshansuli. A total of 97.1% of the estimated whole
genome size has been assembled. These assembled scaffolds have been aligned and
oriented to their corresponding 17 chromosomes using a high-density genetic
map.

Professor Shaoling
Zhang, the chief scientist and group leader of the pear genome sequencing
project at Nanjing Agricultural University, said, “The complete sequencing of
the pear genome provides a solid scientific foundation for scientists to
explore the complex genetic characteristics underlying the pear fruit tree,
such as the key genes that related with the taste, color, storage, resistance
for diseases and insects as well as yield improvement. Moreover, the genomic
sequence provides an invaluable new resource for tracing pear’s evolutionary
history.”

Professor Jun Wang,
Executive Director of BGI, said, “The completion of the genome sequencing is a
major step forward to understanding pear’s important economic traits. We are
making continuous efforts for decoding genomes of plants and animals that play
a key economic role or are considered valuable food sources, as well as
endangered species that have evolutionary or scientific importance. We would
like to enhance the genomic research through collaborative projects with
researchers worldwide for better understanding the genetics basis of plants and
animals and boosting the further development of modern agriculture.”

About Nanjing
Agricultural University

Nanjing Agricultural
University (NAU) is a public university located in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China. It is one of China’s oldest universities
of agricultural sciences under the administration of the Ministry of Education.
NAU is not only a national key university of high learning directly
administered by the Ministry of Education, but also one of the earliest higher
education establishments for agriculture. It has a good reputation both at home
and abroad in all fields of agricultural science. NAU pays great attention to
international collaborations and exchanges. It has established relationships
with 30 foreign institutions. In recent years, research co-operation with
developed countries and personnel training for developing countries have become
two important features of the university. All these activities have undoubtedly
stimulated the vigorous development of internationalized education and research
in the university.